Chapter 1: Knowing the Ocean World

Knowing the Ocean World Vocabulary: Aqua Marine science Cartographer Ocean Celestial navigation Oceanography Chart Oceanus Chronometer Science Compass Scientific method Echo sounder Sea power Experiment SEASTAR Global Positioning System Sounding Hypothesis Theory Latitude TOPEX/Poseidon Law Voyaging Library of Alexandria World ocean Longitude

I. Science and the Story of the Ocean --Science uses the scientific method (a systematic way of asking and answering questions about the natural world), observations, and experiments.

--Curiosity about the ocean led to travel, trade, warfare, and finding food more easily. The search for knowledge came later.

II. An Ocean World --Ocean-the vast body of saline water that occupies the depressions of Earth’s surface.

--4% of humanity’s food, 1/3 of all fossil fuels come from the ocean

--Nearly 3 billion people live within 150 miles of ocean

--Terms ocean and seas used for human convenience, there is really only one world ocean (covers 70.78% of Earth’s surface)

--Ocean facts: covers 361 million square km (139 mil sq.mi.), avg. depth is 3,796 m (12,451 ft), seawater vol. 1.37 billion km3(329 mi3), avg. temp. 3.9°C (39°F) --the average depth of the ocean is much greater than the average height of the continents above sea level.

--Of all water on Earth, only 2 --Of all water on Earth, only 2.5% is fresh, and of the freshwater, only 30% is free to use (the rest is frozen).

--Lakes and rivers only make up less than 0.1% of all water on the planet.

III. Marine Science, Oceanography, and the Nature of Science --Marine Science (the process of discovering unifying principles in data obtained from the ocean, its associated life-forms, and the bordering lands); also called oceanography.

--Integrates the 3 main sciences: Life Science, Earth Science, Physical Science

--Using the scientific method, hypothesis becomes theory through much experimentation and observation, data is collected, and the best possible explanations are applied to new questions.

IV. Early Voyaging and Discovery --The fact that early explorers met “natives” everywhere they went, shows that the ocean did not slow the spread of man from early evolutionary times.

--Cretans were the first to use water travel as a means of commerce (1200 BC) in the Mediterranean

--Greeks moved into open ocean around 900-700 BC, thought it was a big river (okeanos), didn’t sail out of sight of land

--800 BC, first cartographers (chart makers) map ocean routes

--Charts = ocean, maps = land

--Used stars and sun position for navigation

V. Science for Voyaging --Library of Alexandria founded third century BC by Alexander the Great

--Greatest storehouse of ancient knowledge

--Docked ships turned over any scrolls or books to be copied, originals were kept in the library

a. Alexandrian Contributions --Around 200 BC, Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth to within 8% using angles of sunlight at noon on the longest day of the year.

--Pythagoras hypothesized that the Earth was round in the 6th century.

--library was first real university

--researchers shared information and came up with celestial navigation (finding your position on Earth by stars, planets, the moon, and the sun)

--charts were kept and updated in the library until its destruction

--latitude and longitude were invented by Eratosthenes

b. Latitude and Longitude --Hipparchus perfected latitude and longitude by dividing into 360°

--Ptolemy divided the degrees into minutes and seconds

--Latitude = horizontal, longitude = vertical

--lat 0 at equator, goes up 30, 60, 90 north and 30, 60, 90 south

--longitude 0 originally at Alexandria, later moved to Greenwich, England because the British were known for excellent sailing prowess and impeccable timekeeping

--longitude moves east from 0 up to 180 and west from 0 up to 180

c. Voyages of the Oceanian Peoples --Polynesians colonized 10,000 Pacific Islands starting 30,000 years ago.

--Main islands colonized by 800 BC

--Between 300 and 600 AD, Polynesian people spread out from the main islands to nearly every inhabitable island in the 10 million sq.mi. area of ocean all the way to Hawaii

d. Meanwhile, Back in Europe… --The fall of the Alexandrian library led to the Dark Ages in Europe

--Vikings attacked the Europeans with superior sailing skills until the Europeans perfected their defenses

--Vikings found Iceland and Greenland when blown off course looking for easier raids

--Vikings colonized Iceland by 700 AD, Greenland by 995 AD

--Accidentally found the North American coast in 986 by missing Greenland

--Called Newfoundland Vinland, because of the grapes they found

--settled Vinland in 1000 AD, abandoned in 1020

e. Chinese Contributions --Dark Ages did not affect China

--between 1405 and 1433, they sent 300 ships exploring the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and around the tip of Africa just to show off their power

--invented the compass, the rudder, watertight compartments, and multiple sail systems

--Chinese quit ocean exploration in 1433 due to changes in political beliefs

f. The Age of Discovery: From Prince Henry to Magellan --Renaissance ended the Dark Ages, ushered in the Age of Discovery

--Constantinople captured by Turks in 1453, cutting off overland spice trade

--Ocean exploration sought water routes to reestablish trade

--Prince Henry the Navigator was from the royal house of Portugal

--set up a school for marine science and navigation

--didn’t sail much himself, but sent out many voyages

--started using the compass secretly, Europeans still thought it was magic and unreliable

--Christopher Columbus-credited with discovering North America, even though native peoples were already here.

--Ferdinand Magellan-credited with being the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe, even though he died before the end of the trip

Voyaging for Science --After the Age of Discovery, British sea power arose to compete with Spain and France.

--Admiral de Bougainville of France sailed into the South Pacific in the mid-1760s and claimed French Polynesia in 1768. This opened the door for European nations in the Pacific.

James Cook --British Royal Navy, commander of many missions for the British circling the world, looking for new continents, searching for a northwest passage above North America, first known for voyaging just for the sake of science

The Longitude Problem --Latitude could be calculated using the stars, but longitude needed a reliable clock to go by. Pendulum clocks of the time were useless on ships.

--John Harrison, in 1728, invented the first chronometer, driven by springs instead of pendulums.

The Sampling Problem --snaking of the sampling line made noting location difficult, the weight of the line made it difficult to know when you hit bottom, sampling was time consuming and unreliable

--Sir John Ross and nephew designed a clamping sampler in 1818 that was much more reliable, they also took reliable soundings (depths) of the ocean floor

--Fridtjof Nansen perfected the deep sampling bottle near the end of the1800s, it is still named after him, sampling at depth still remains difficult

The First Scientific Expeditions The United States Exploring Expedition --The Smithsonian Institution used the United States Exploring Expedition as the nucleus of its scientific collection.

The Work of Matthew Maury Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle The Rise of Modern Sea Power Alfred Thayer Mahan The Challenger Expedition

--Challenger-the first “pure” science expedition, used the term oceanography for the first time

Voyages for Science in the Twentieth Century Polar Exploration Marine Archaeology --read about this topic on p.27 Other Twentieth Century Voyages

The Rise of Oceanographic Institutions --Future research will be done through private, institutional, and national oceanographic institutions.

Satellite Oceanography --TOPEX/Poseidon Alphabetic Oceanography --Glomar Challenger History in Progress --Current research is funded through academic institutions or governmental agencies, usually publicly funded.

You should have information on these explorers and missions in your Explorer’s Notes from last week: Challenger expedition Benjamin Franklin Meteor expedition John Harrison United States Exploring Expedition Ferdinand Magellan Alfred Thayer Mahan The Polynesians Matthew Maury The Vikings Prince Henry the Navigator  Christopher Columbus James Cook Charles Darwin Eratosthenes of Cyrene